Each year, in October, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs produces Chicago Artists Month. Artists and cultural institutions open up their studios and spaces for tours, workshops and other special events. The theme for 2008 was “Artists and Issues that Matter”.

In response to this theme I designed a banner for the exterior wall of Lillstreet Art Center and postcards, which were distributed at various locations throughout Chicago.

“Peace is an Issue Worth Fighting For” goes a celebrated saying. Merriam Webster defines an issue as: “a final outcome that usually constitutes a solution; the point at which an unsettled matter is ready for a decision; a place to go forth from.”

For many people, especially those involved in peace movements or government diplomacy, peace is an issue.

In the Great Lakes region of Africa, the word for peace is kindoki, which refers to a harmonious balance between human beings, the rest of the natural world, and the cosmos. Peace is not dependent upon external influences such as time, people, place, or even an absence of war.

This vision recognizes that humanity is a seamless part of a larger whole where each of us is one with all of creation. Peace is not an issue or a cause but a way of being. If each of us begins to practice this way of being with ourselves and in the world enduring peace moves from an idealistic notion to a tangible reality.